REVIEW: THE CRUEL PRINCE (Holly Black)

Oh man, did I want to love this. On paper, it has all the makings of a favourite for me, but instead of reading like the backstabbing-fey-royal-intrigue plot I was promised, it read more like Mean Girls with swords. I bumped The Cruel Prince up to a 2.5 star rather than a 2 star only because of what seems to be (under all the narrative dust) a really intriguing world and plot -- the twists and motivations could have been incredible were it not for the complete incompetence of the narrator. Speaking of which! If there ever was an exemplar of why SHOW DON'T TELL is rule #1 in writing, this is it. Cool scene where Jude has to sneak into a high-security place and overhear something? Yeah, she'll just tell you about it. Not like you wanted to, you know, read it happen or whatever. Is a character cruel? Don't worry, in case you couldn't tell from them trying to kill her at every turn, she'll let you know. You know, in case you missed it. I feel like Holly Black didn't trust her readers to pick up what she was throwing down, and that always disappoints me. I love an understated character moment, after all.

Also, yeah... where the f*ck did her sudden infatuation with Cardan come from?

Overall, The Cruel Prince could have been absolutely incredible if it weren't for poor narration. Excellent plot, great characters, but poor threads connecting them. This book falls victim to telling-not-showing, and I won't be tuning in to The Wicked King.

(Originally posted on Goodreads: Dec 17, 2018)